The Myth of Core Stability

Core stability for gymnasts is important, up to a point.

But I’ve long suspected that coaches over-emphasize it, at the expense of other physical qualities.

For example, this gymnast is not arched due to lack of abdominal strength.

Giant doesn’t require much abdominal strength.

There’s a bit of trend in sport science, right now, to reduce the amount of core body conditioning we are doing, especially the traditional “sit-up”.

Stuart McGill, professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, is cited in this recent article:

MacLeans – The man who wants to kill crunches
A Canadian professor of spine biomechanics rails about the dangers of the ubiquitous sit-up

Of course that’s not sport specific.

A better article for coaches is …

The Myth of Core Stability by Professor Eyal Lederman, of CPDO, the Centre for Professional Development in Osteopathy and Manual Therapy.

I checked on this “trend” to avoid over-conditioning the core with Keith Russell.

He tended to agree:

… don’t isolate, use large body movements where ever possible and DON”T overemphasize the abdominals …”

Food for thought. Leave a comment if you’ve modified your core body strength training. Using more isometric training, for example.

related – Gymnastics Revolution – The Giant

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